Investigations

Butch

-I sat at my desk with my head in my hands. I shouldn’t even have pretended to try to get some sleep last night. That shit was so not happening. I was pretty sure that at one point during the night my bed got up and told me to knock it the fuck off. All I could think about was tall, dark and dangerous. I let out a sigh and combed my fingers through my hair. I really needed to pull my shit together. I knew more about the whore on the corner than I did about V. Something had completely short circuited in my brain somewhere along the way. I was a reckless son of a bitch but not like this. I glanced around to see if anyone was paying attention to my ass before pulling up the files on the Commodore case on the computer. Apparently they had the murder case locked down tight. Of course the arson had been handed off to someone else and they still had no leads on that one. I could tell them exactly who did it but fuck if I knew how to find him. I dug further and found out that they hadn’t even been able to find out who owned the apartment. Okay… no big surprise there. Yet another dead end. The guy was like a ghost. And that didn’t usually mean anything good. Damn it Butch where are your fucking instincts when it comes to this shit? Gonna land myself in a heap of trouble in epic proportions if I didn’t watch my fucking ass. I pulled out my notepad and began sketching out the tattoos that curved around his eye; something that should have been hard considering I’d only seen him a few times. I found that I had no trouble what-so-ever remembering every detail of the strange design. The more I looked at it the more they seemed like letters to me but I couldn’t place what type of language they were. I flipped the pad closed as Jose came over to me and tucked it back in my coat pocket. No sense in him seeing what I was obsessing over, he would only ask a ton of fucking questions that I wasn’t prepared to answer. I would have to hit up the tattoo shops after work and see what I could turn up. I doubted very much that it was done around here but maybe I could learn something about what the symbols meant. I got up from the desk half-listening to what Jose was telling me about the case we’d just caught. Nodding at the appropriate parts but still trying to piece together this fucking puzzle in my head. My mind was leaping to all types of possible careers that Vishous might have. None of them were good. I already made plans to spend as much time as fucking possible away from my apartment. I needed some type of distance so that I could think straight. It seemed that any time I was around the guy my brain turned right the hell off. Jose stopped in front of me and I almost ran into him. Okay, I needed to get with the program and at least pretend to do my job this was ridiculous. I laughed it off and told him that I didn’t get much sleep the night before. True enough. Least he was doing the driving, I woulda driven us up a tree for sure. I stared out the window at the scenery passing by and tried to get him out of my head and focus on my work. If just for a few hours anyway.-

V

My fingers stall on the keys, I had played back the video feed from the Brotherhood’s compound, and they were scratching their heads at my exit. Well good thing I wasn’t the only one, someone had unlocked that door and left it ajar, question is who. I had gone over the feed over and over and every fucking time I came up to that timer in the video, it had gone all static out and then came back into view with me scoping out the hall. Leaning back in my chair, I just stared at the screen and went over each brother in my head; I knew the powers of each one in detail and not a one had the ability to blank out like that. Bracing my hands behind my head, I reclined back some and slowly closed my eyes, I retraced every step I took from my small prison, and then it clicked, the scent. At the time I was focused on bailing out on the Kings kind hospitality, to let anything other than reaching the outside to register, but now I clearly remember it. ”Well fuck, why would the Angel want to set me free.” That question was going to burn a whole in my mind, what was in it for him to betray the Brotherhood that way, and there was no love lost between Lass and me. Sitting back up in my chair, I leaned my elbows on the make shift desk and with a roll over the mouse I had the cameras pulled up that angled right down the single hall that led to the Angle’s sleeping quarters. I strolled through 4 days of feed and each day had visible shots of Lass leaving his room or returning to it, clearly he was able to be caught on tape so he manipulated the feed that day. Again the whys of it all was pounding like a ticking bomb around in my mind, growling lowly under my breath, I picked up the half full glass of Goose and finished it off. This was just another thing to add to the stock pile of ‘What the fucks’ that was building up, all the unanswered stuff was spreading like the plague. Somewhere I had taken a turn into some outer limits stuff, before life was simple, live, breathe, eat, fight, control, then repeat, no use adding in dealing with the past when it decided to slap me in the face. Now I was spending half my nights hunting down Lessers and the other half outside a humans apartment or fuck why not call it what it was, stalking the Cop, even on his jobs. The nights that had passed since our make out session in Butch’s kitchen, I had stayed away and out of view, but something in me kept pulling towards the Human. I gave up on denying it and went with it, gotta say the more I watched Butch out in the field, I was impressed with his techniques, his mind was always on the go and he didn’t miss a beat, and more than once I ended up with an issue in my pants when I watched the Cop work over some low life, yeah he had some anger issues, that stuff was evident. Pride burned deep in me, he wasn’t a vamp, but he was definitely a man of worth, much too good to be around the likes of a male like me, I pictured it clear as the day that I couldn’t set foot in, his was probably berating himself for the showdown at his place the other night, and that was something I didn’t or fuck, couldn’t want to see in his eyes, straight up cold disgust. Yeah that was a deep ass well I wasn’t in the mood to dive in, rolling my head between my shoulders some, trying to work out the tension that was tight as any knot I have ever tied, in my shoulders, pushing the glass aside, I just grabbed up the open bottle of Goose and sucked on that fucker like a well versed wino.

Butch

-I couldn’t get done with work fast enough for my tastes. I was itching to try to find out something… anything. In the back of my head I knew that it was a crapshoot but I couldn’t sit back and let myself slide down the slope blissfully unaware. At this point I would take a vague rumor that they had seen V in a movie theater once. Anything that proved that he actually moved around in society was preferable to the other option. The option that was reserved for things like hired killers. The thought sent shivers down my spine. That I might be warming up to someone that I would normally toss behind bars sat in my head with a nagging certainty. I made the first of what would prove to be many stops at tattoo shops. My story was the same each time. I would lead with the badge so that they didn’t wonder why I was asking so many damn questions and lay out a description of Vishous followed up with the sketch of the tattoo that I had. I was turning up a lot of nothing aside from the fact that it looked like a cool tat. I didn’t even catch a glimmer of recognition on what the symbols might mean. I’d lost whatever head of steam I had going into this particular venture by the time I got toward the bottom of my list. I stood outside one of the more unhygienic shops and leaned back heavily against the wall. I don’t know why I was trying so damn hard. I desperately wanted this stranger to not be such a bad guy after all. If I thought that V might tell me the truth about himself, I would just ask. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a stick of gum, I’d just popped it into my mouth when the door next to me opened and some kid who couldn’t have been older than 19 cautiously walked over to me. He lit up a cigarette and kicked back against the building next to me. I could clearly see his track marks when he lifted his arm and he was visibly shaking. It took him awhile to spit out actual words. ‘Say, I heard you in there asking about some dude and I might know some guys that can clue you in.’ He licked his lips and glanced back and forth like someone was going to pop out of the shadows at any minute and end his miserable existence.- I’m listening. -I wasn’t sure what kind of information this kid had but it was closer than I had managed to get all damn night and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to hear him out. Apparently this was the go ahead he was looking for to spew like I was his freaking bartender. ‘These guys have been real good to me. They promised to get me clean and set me up with a place to live if I join up with ‘em. Sure they seem a little weird but who am I to judge. Seems that I can’t get a tat after I sign on and I’ve wanted one since I can remember so here I am. Anyways…’ He waved his hand that held the cigarette like he was trying to remember what in the hell he was talking about before continuing. ‘They warned me about guys like the one you described. Big dudes, wear lot’s of leather like bikers and only come out at night. Right?’ I had to wrinkle my brow at that one because I hadn’t even realized it before but now that he said it, I did only see Vishous at night.- Yeah. That’s the type. Why would they warn you about them? -My curiosity was piqued into overdrive at this point. The kid’s face got really serious all of the sudden and he glanced around once more, lowering his voice. ‘They told me that guys like that are serious bad news. The kind that stab first and ask questions later if you catch my meaning. I can ask the boss if he wants to meet with you if you like.’ I held my facial expression neutral but everything in me had just exploded in a soupy mess. This wasn’t what I wanted to hear but it was exactly what I had feared.- That would be great, kid. Here’s my number. -I slipped him my business card with a twenty dollar bill. His face brightened and he thanked me before stamping out his smoke and heading back inside. I walked to my car like a zombie and sat down heavily behind the wheel, just staring off into the night. I shouldn’t even have gone looking. It felt like an elephant had taken up residence on my chest. I fumbled around in the glove box until I found the bottle of pepto and tipped back the entire contents. I desperately wanted this information to be a crock of shit. With a sigh I checked my watch. I needed a fucking drink bad. Seemed I still had plenty of time to tie one on. I started up my crown vic and hit the closest bar with a vengeance. My mood was so toxic that no one bothered my ass when I parked it in a corner booth. Good. Just how I liked it.-